I do love standing in a hypocaust! Do you know where this one is?

This is our Ancient Woodland in the Kingdom of Kent, taken from a foreign country. Sussex

Just seen someone argue against Digital IDs because it'll make it harder for ordinary people to get cash in hand jobs in pubs. Amazing.

‘A cranky campaign group opposing Covid vaccines had a stand. The most prominent display in the hall was selling gold bullion. A photograph of a beaming Farage loomed over it: “Protect your wealth in uncertain times.”’ Peter Geoghegan at Reform UK’s conference: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I don't want to put a downer on all the gloom. But I took a train to London yesterday. It arrived on time. I saw an elm tree, had some fantastic food and drink, and then heard wonderful live music courtesy of the #ManchesterCollective.

As Reform's Nathan Gill admits taking bribes from Russian 'secret service pawn' Oleg Voloshyn, here’s a nice photo of Nigel Farage with Voloshyn’s wife.

💯% this…

If Musk, Bannon, Gates & Prince Andrew can be named in the Jeffrey Epstein document I wonder who were the two people whose names were redacted & why 🤔

This only happens to you once

Bicentenary of the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives: George Stephenson’s visionary project Stockton & Darlington opened #OTD 1825, with steam engine Locomotion No. 1 built by Robert Stephenson & Company. #rail200 National Railway Museum

Cheer up it may never happen

The only things we know for sure about the next election. 1) Major things will happen between now and then. And no one currently has a scooby what they are. At all. 2) The result will be unprecedented. Because the result of every GE is unprecedented.

Happy birthday George Gershwin born #otd 1898 (and my big teenage crush)

France has banned internal flights where the train is less than 4 hours. Yes, our infrastructure isn't up to scratch for that yet but if government set a goal to do it in 10 years, it could be our moonshot.

The last time you could accuse Labour of supporting "uncontrolled immigration" would be 1967, before Roy Jenkins was moved from the Home Office and they started limiting immigration from Commonwealth countries.

The Government wants me to buy an app from a commercial software supplier just to file my tax returns. The Government wants me to buy a smartphone just so I can prove who I am The government wants me to pay a right wing rag so I can read its announcements. Well - fuck you! https://archive.is/AZnIn

In today’s #ReadingRussia I look at what the Russian newspapers are saying about ‘victory’…and the country’s economic problems.

Any London bird-watcher would be THRILLED to spot a Redstart. Except if it was somehow madly trapped between two panes of glass in your window, and singing because it thought it was dying. This week's column: www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

I’ll leave this here…

Do a thought experiment. Miraculously millions of recent migrants decide to leave, taking their human and financial capital with them. What impact would that have? Who would benefit?

Did you know #solar panels can help #farms and livestock? It's called #agrivoltaics! 🧑‍🌾 #Farmers can raise panels high enough for sheep to graze beneath them. This provides shade for the animals, keeps them cool on hot days, and can even save water. solarunitedneighbors.org/news/agrivol...

Digital ID is inevitable, but: We need a comprehensive digital rights Act; We must own our data and know who accesses it; The software must be owned and controlled in the UK; Full safeguards against malicious actors; Employers etc should only be given limited access. www.bbc.com/news/article...

A sensible take from @jamesomalley.co.uk on digital ID cards. Checks aren’t going away, so we do need to make them easier for citizens & employers. We have just such a system over here in NL and it does make life administratively a lot easier. open.substack.com/pub/jamesoma...

The 'make David DPM' switcharound is a genuinely clever bit of the reshuffle, in that it fixed a big problem for them without losing them anything. The stupid bits: sacking Lucy Powell, not promoting someone from the middle of the party to the spare Cabinet brief, not sacking Lisa Nandy.

Putin pours another glass

There's a lot to be said for having an impartial and apolitical Director of Public Prosecutions in a developed democracy.

One of cinema's first depictions of the parting of the Red Sea. From The Life of Moses (1909)

The Russian spy ship stalking Europe’s subsea cables on.ft.com/4nOeeCn

Here’s how I sometimes start a new project. First I buy a fancy new notebook. Second I write some very well-ordered notes in my best handwriting on the first page. Third I never look at it again.

Microsoft said Israel’s use of Azure to store data obtained through mass surveillance of Palestinians violated its terms

“Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out across the sky...” The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915) by T.S. Eliot, most influential poet of 20th Century, born #OTD 1888. ⁦T.S. Eliot, 1920 (Lady Ottoline Morrell photo archive) National Portrait Gallery London

Three grows in two sentences in one para.😱 Now an expand, a build and an extend. I really dislike ‘growing a business’. #EditingMatters #GrowFlowers

Exactly 50 years ago, the British government announced that inflation, based on the retail price index (RPI), had reached a post-war high of 27% in August 1975 – equivalent to 25% rate on modern consumer price index (CPI) basis. This was worse than in any other peer country. cepr.org/voxeu/column...

1️⃣ One person 2️⃣ one vote 3️⃣ one NI number 4️⃣ one drivers' licence 5️⃣ one NHS number anyone against this simple concept is happy to let the black economy flourish and all of the rest of us to suffer.

If you’re taking this tack, you could say the trouble with high immigration of late is govts tried to do it on the cheap; they pocketed the extra taxes paid by migrants but cut public spending, even tho the population was rising fast, and didn’t build the houses or school places to match

Brilliant businessman accidentally gives employees 7-month paid vacation.

How about "BBC Licence Fee Payer Club Card"?

I reckon they should call it YourCard or Cardy McCardyface

Wasn’t she married to Henry VIII?

‘Shocking’ Jhoots pharmacy chain should be shut down, says MP James DiamondSomerset, Wiliton BBC More than 100 pharmacies operate under the Jhoots brand, but with different management A pharmacy chain has serious questions to answer over allegations of financial mismanagement, according to MP…

Burnham seems to be guided by the need to keep his supporters on board, delivering enough of what they want that they'll vote for him next time. His changes tend to go with his sense of their changes. Starmer's governing principle seems to be to try to win over his opponents, not keep his base.

Two more Russian officials committed “suicide” today. They’re dropping like flies, quite literally in the case of Alexander Fedotov, former chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee for Transport Infrastructure Development, who “jumped” from his window at the Sheremetyevo Airport Sheraton. 1/2

TV entertainer and inexplicably Secretary of Defense/War/whatevs Pete Hegseth has called an urgent meeting of senior military leaders from around the world, the Pentagon has confirmed.

Um…..

This is very, very good. Let's see Phillipson say something similar or, God help her, explain why Powell is wrong.

We do not need Andy Burnham right now. Maybe in a couple of years, if he cares to stand for election to Parliament and becomes an MP, he can campaign to become leader of the Labour Party. Now, he’s just a irrelevant distraction, like an annoying wasp interrupting a picnic.

I'm pretty sure the last time I tried to explain the drama around the London ITV franchises in 1967/68 it took me six hours. Discussion of any aspect of the Beach Boys' Smile lacks such brevity.

Years from now this will probably be known as “The Purge”.

In an era where cybercrime is rife, where loads of data is hacked, where systems fail and tech collapses, do you really think a national identity card is a good idea? (Not least because governments are all having wet dreams about authoritarianism).

Sunset west. No more sundowns after 7pm until February 2026